Yesterday, I followed a couple of links that branched out from some “radical feminist” blogs that have said some pretty nasty things about me since I defriended Cathy Brennan. Especially since I’ve started commenting on the sociopathic/psychopathic nature of a number of the self proclaimed “radical feminists”.

I feel I have to put quote marks around “radical feminist” since they seem to have commandeered a term that used to be associated with Socialist and Communist oriented feminism.

I first encountered these vile bigots in the 1970s, when it seemed their main purpose in life was to drive left wing hippie type TS/TG women from feminism, from being considered legitimate members of the lesbian community or even from the left itself.

I always thought them to be a strange sort, more interested in pushing their hatred of TS/TG people, than pushing for rights for women or even for lesbians. Denying a minority group their rights based on the idea that their having equality somehow impinges upon your own rights has always been a right wing thing, not something reflective of the progressive left or even liberal spectrum of politics.

One big advantage of having come out as long ago as I did noticing the mechanics these nasty thugs use. It’s like an updated more techno rerun of the shit they pulled years ago. It’s like deja vu all over again when you find some of the thugs are from the same cast of characters who ran this shit the first time around.

The big difference is that back in the 1970s a few transsexuals wrote their own memoirs. Now many of us do. Back then everything else that was written about us as a people was written by Nons (Non TS/TG). It was like we couldn’t write about or offer an analysis about something that was central to our being. The “Professionals” said we lacked distance, never acknowledging they were clueless s to what we actually felt.

The Nons got to control the discourse back then. Our trying to tell what we were about was dismissed.

Mostly we cried, drank, got stoned, while internalizing the abuse, while trying to purge ourselves of anything the “radical feminists” could accuse us of. We became such good feminists and so fucking pure we denied ourselves the pleasure of wearing filmy Stevie Nicks sort of hippie dresses or skintight Lycra disco jeans because that might be buying into some sort of corporate mandated oppressive fashion.
But it didn’t fucking matter because we could be indistinguishable from the most androgynous anti-fashion militant dyke imaginable and we still were held in contempt.

You see, Jan Raymond decided and her band of bizarre harpies agreed, that our being indistinguishable from the most militant lesbian feminists didn’t make us militant lesbian feminists. Oh no…. It meant we were more evil than our sisters who embraced the media driven sort of femininity. We were trying to infiltrate the sacred sisterhood, to make transsexualism and by extension transgenderism socially acceptable and in sync with feminism.

The odd thing was there were all these decent mainstream feminists who sort of went along with this. Including Ms Magazine and Gloria Steinem at one point. The late Adrienne Rich endorsed Janice Raymond’s anti-transsexual version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

I don’t much care what people think of Riki Wilchins or Kate Bornstein or for that matter Leslie Feinberg. I don’t care what you think of their books. Hell I disagree with most of what they wrote, but they showed us a couple of things that are far too important to be forgotten. One of those is we have a right and a duty to speak for ourselves. Some in the Transgender Borg faction get pissy with me when I say it isn’t my role in life to speak for our brothers. They don’t understand that brothers are articulate, educated and speaking for themselves. Which is how it should be.

We are thinking human beings. Why the fuck do we need a Non like Bailey or Blanchard to think for us or interpret our lives and the meaning of our lives.

While I blow off the writings of Kate and Riki now, I remember how important they were in 1994. How powerful and empowering some of Riki’s writings were.

Since then I’ve read the writings of brothers like Jay Prosser and Max Valerio, sisters like Julia Serano, Kelly Winters and Viviane Namaste.

Powerful voices all articulating who we are, what we are about.

I’ve watched some transgender activists as well as post-transsexual activists move beyond just trans-politics to integrating trans-issues with feminism, Occupy and a hundred other causes.

I watched Julia Serano make the connection between misogyny and transphobia. When Drew DeVeaux, Sable and Natalie Reed opened the discussion of the “cotton ceiling” I thought, “About fucking time.”

The reaction of the “radical feminists” was so fucking predictable. I knew their slime machine would go into overdrive churning out filth and hate, lies and smears.

Now there are some TS/TG folks who act like useful idiots to the radical feminists. I realize that on some levels I was a useful idiot for the Lesbian Tide. In my defense, I never attacked my sisters to curry favor.

I actually feel that being slimed along with the following of my Facebook friends: Julia Serano, Drew DeVeaux, Sable, Natalie Reed, Katrina Rose, Joann Prinzivalli and others I haven’t sent electronic hugs and messages of support to is a mark of honor.

It must mean we are saying something important to be slimed by a bunch of hate rhetoric spouting thugs, of the same ilk that slimed people like Beth and Sandy in the 1970s.

I actually look upon this as an honor. Sort of like the song “You ain’t done Nothing if you ain’t been called a Red.”

If you are or were transsexual or if you are transgender and these right wing rhetoric spouting “radical feminists” haven’t slimed you yet you need to try a little harder. Stand up for what you are, who you are or why you did what you did.

This time around there are a lot of mainstream feminists and lesbians who are our allies and who are starting to take a stand against this sort of bullying.

TV Host and Icon of New Year’s Eve

Dick Clark, the perpetually youthful-looking television host whose long-running daytime song-and-dance fest, “American Bandstand,” did as much as anyone or anything to advance the influence of teenagers and rock ’n’ roll on American culture, died Wednesday. He was 82.

The cause was a heart attack, a spokesman, Paul Shefrin, said in a statement.

Mr. Clark had a well-publicized stroke in December 2004, shortly before he was to appear on the annual televised New Year’s Eve party he had produced and hosted every year since 1973. He subsequently returned for brief appearances on the show, most recently this past New Year’s Eve.

With the boyish good looks of a bound-for-success junior executive and a ubiquitous on-camera presence, Mr. Clark was among the most recognizable faces in the world, even if what he was most famous for — spinning records and jabbering with teeny-boppers — was on the insubstantial side. In addition to “American Bandstand” and “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve,” Mr. Clark hosted innumerable awards shows, comedy specials, series based on TV outtakes and the game show $10,000 Pyramid” (which lasted long enough to see the stakes ratcheted up to $100,000). He also made guest appearances on dramatic and comedy series, usually playing himself.

But he fancied himself a businessman even more than a television personality — “I get enormous pleasure and excitement sitting in on conferences with accountants, tax experts and lawyers,” he said in an interview with The New York Times in 1961 — and he was especially deft at packaging entertainment products for the small screen.

A transgender woman has been found apparently murdered in West Garfield Park, Chicago, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs.

Paige Clay, 23, was found in an alley was found in an alley on the 4500 block of West Jackson on Monday at 3:52 a.m.

Police did not identify Clay. Rather, several community members confirmed her identity to Windy City Times. According to reports, Clay received services at local LGBT agencies and was known in Chicago’s ball scene.

According to police, Clay suffered a gunshot wound to the head. No one is custody. Area North Detectives are investigating.

Community members are organizing a remembrance of Clay, the details of which have yet to be announced.

Windy City Times will continue to update as details become available. Those who would like to contribute to a remembrance of clay can email editor@windycitymediagroup.com .

Transgender students at the University of Texas at Austin will be able to use a preferred name on university and medical records under a new policy this summer.

Students were able to request to use a preferred name on university documents beginning last fall, but the new policy includes medical records in addition to class rosters and ID cards, The Daily Texan reports.

The policy was the result of the LGBT presidential task force that uses the input of faculty and students to advance LGBT rights on campus.

UT administrators had to address the concern of identifying students off campus in the event that a student became involved with the police and the university was asked to verify a student’s name. In order to verify the name on record, the student’s legal name is on the back of the student ID, and the preferred name is on the front.

However, a legal name change is required for a different name on diplomas or transcripts.

In The State Of Florida – Marissa Alexander Had A Gun Permit, Stood Her Ground, Did Not Shoot Or Kill Anyone and Faces 20 Years In Prison

On August 1 2010, my premature baby girl, born nine days earlier, was in the Baptist South N.I.C.U. fighting for her life and I would too be fighting for my life in my own home against an attack from my husband.

My name is Marissa Alexander, I am a mother of three children, but at the present time, I am not able to be with them due to the following circumstances. I am currently sitting in the Pretrial Detention Facility in Jacksonville FL, Duval County awaiting a sentence for three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with no intent to harm. Before my life changed drastically on that August afternoon, I was in the perilous position of leaving an abusive relationship with my husband who has history of violence and documented domestic abuse towards women. Our history included one which required me to place an injunction for protection against violence and was active during the month of August 2010.

In an unprovoked jealous rage, my husband violently confronted me while using the restroom. He assaulted me, shoving, strangling and holding me against my will, preventing me from fleeing all while I begged for him to leave. After a minute or two of trying to escape, I was able to make it to the garage where my truck was parked, but in my haste to leave I realized my keys were missing. I tried to open the garage but there was a mechanical failure. I was unable to leave, trapped in the dark with no way out. For protection against further assault I retrieved my weapon; which is registered and I have a concealed weapon permit. Trapped, no phone, I entered back into my home to either leave through another exit or obtain my cell phone.

He and my two stepsons were supposed to be exiting the house thru the front door, but he didn’t leave. Instead he came into the kitchen that leads to the garage and realized I was unable to leave. Instead of leaving thru the front door where his vehicle was parked outside of the garage, he came into the kitchen by himself. I was terrified from the first encounter and feared he came to do as he had threatened. The weapon was in my right hand down by my side and he yelled, “Bitch I will kill you!”, and charged toward me. In fear and desperate attempt, I lifted my weapon up, turned away and discharged a single shot in the wall up in the ceiling. As I stood my ground it prevented him from doing what he threatened and he ran out of the home. Outside of the home, he contacted the police and falsely reported that I shot at him and his sons. The police arrived and I was taken into custody.

I was devastated and would continue to be for months following the incident. I had to appear in court all the way up until trial as I plead not guilty and know that I acted in self-defense. I believe my actions saved my life or prevented further harm, but preserved that of my husband who was completely irrational, extremely violent, and unpredictable that day.

Florida has a self-defense law and it includes the right to stand your ground. Below are the facts of my concern with the incorrect way the law was applied and ultimately the injustice in my case.

Questions over why President Obama chose last week not to pursue an executive order to ban federal contractors from discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity continued to be posed in the White House briefing room today, with White House press secretary Jay Carney today pulling back comments made by White House spokesman Shin Inouye less than 24 hours earlier that “the Administration hasn’t taken any options off the table.”

Today, Carney said, “Our position hasn’t changed since we started talking about this last week. At this time, we believe that the right approach is to build support for passage of [Employment Non-Discrimination Act] legislation. And I think an example of why this approach can be most effective is the way that we approached the repeal of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.’ So, there is no change.”

Although Carney has pointed repeatedly to DADT repeal as the path for workplace protections, the White House has not responded to any of the multiple distinctions between the two goals of LGBT equality supporters.

Asked if today’s answer contradicted Inouye’s comment, Carney said, “What I just heard you say does not represent anything different from what I’ve said in the past, which is that at this time we are not pursuing an executive order. I’m not going to speculate about executive orders that may or may not be pursued in the future. What I’m saying is: Right now, we’re not.”

Today’s questioning marks the second time Carney has been asked about the executive order in the briefing in the six days since the White House decision not to issue such an executive order at this time.